Engines of Destruction (SolZen321 One Shot)
Premise Fleeing the devastation of their homeworld Morpheus, the Morpheons landed on a red world rich in metal ore, and fuel sources. However, their new colony is under attack by the planet's prior owner. Characters * Ambus: A red and green medic. * Validus Rex: A purple and teal heavy class robot who takes over command of Ambus' unit. * Atomix: A red and yellow female Noble. * Minos: The green and chrome head of the High Council. Seeks Dominion over the Talisman of Light. * The Tech Collector/The Technomancer: A mysterious being who claims to be the rightful owner of the planet called New Morpheon, properly named Solus. He wants the Morpheon colonists gone. * Pending Mecha * Morpheon Forces ** Genericon Infantry: Bots who lack the ability to transform. ** Morpheon Infantry: Bots who have been given alternate forms ** Morpheon Military Class: Larger bots that transform into heavy vehicles, they generally take command positions. * Abomination Engines: The name given to them by the Morpheon. They are generally similar to the sentinels from the Matrix, only having eye like orbs, with bundles of metallic tendrils. ** Abomination Swarm: The base form. ** Abomination Carts: Swarm drones within vehicles. Their optics are on the hood, and the chest of the robot form. ** Abomination Walker: Cylinder shaped constructs with spider legs. They sport turbo lasers, and autoguns ** Abomination Train: Train like vehicles. They can produce spectral track of hard light to fly and transform into large robot modes. * Big Epsilon: The machine that drove the Morpheons of their homeworld. A giant titan sized warmachine. Prologue The machine marched with impunity, a titan among giants. The massive humanoid mech was yellow and green, and sported a somewhat mechanical face under a glass dome helmet. Its armor was thick and bulky, giving its limbs a cuboid appearance. Its arms were weapons, they sported no hands but where instead places to house massive weapons, weapons that it unleashed upon the city. These weapons were double pincers, four digits that held and charged bolts of plasma that it fired off at high speed. The blaster bolts seared through the metal paneling of the buildings with impunity, going through several buildings. From its eyes came beams, that were absorbed and magnified by the glass as one large beam it used to devastate the buildings and streets and civilians all the same. The people of this world were robotic, mechanoids, humanoid mechanical beings who sported kibble, parts and hints of alternate forms, wheels, car doors, etc. Effectively all were ground based and all where running. Most ran on foot, others transformed and bulldozed anyone in their way in an attempt to escape. It was bedlam in the streets as some turned mad and turned to looting and rampaging as much a danger to those around them as the enemy at their door, and it was an enemy. Above the sky of their grey world, stars flickered in existence and just as quickly faded, all the while beams of light were drawn across the sky. There was a battle taking place above their planet, an invasion, a retaliation, the common mech would not know, that was the news worthy of the 'nobles' the fliers, and they were gone. "Is everything ready...?" the mech asked. They sported a cockpit in their chest, and wings on their back. They had a green and yellow color scheme. He was flanked by large bulky mechs with tank treads as he held an object. It was a spherical object with a circular window to a torrent of swirling golden light. It can with handle on the side which he used. "Certainly..." the other bot said. He was clearly a normal bot but he sported a drill on his back like a backpack. He also had a visor over his chrome face. "The ships are fully stocked and the computer cores are filled with as many loyal and subservient minds we could find." "Good, with the Code Matrix, we can restart somewhere else, somewhere, where organics will not bother us. Prepare for launch." "Yes, sir." The robot stopped its rampage just for a moment, to turn and look out at them. Several transports, large rectangular things, erupting into the air, via columns of ionized smoke from purple plumes of plasma. What program it was running on, whatever methods is systems used to designate a target, it was told to fire, and so it did. It fired its plasma throwers, which had weakened over the distance that the shields of the ship could withstand the blasts. So it turned to its face laser. The beam of concentrated heat zoomed through the atmosphere with a photo-thermal effect, creating a line of white fire as it struck the nearest ship. The shield, a wall of ionized particles, withstood the attack, for just a moment, before the heat translated through, melting first the armor plating then the internal circuits followed by any occupants or cargo inside. The beam made a line down the side of the ship, a line of melted metal and destroyed innards, before it hit something important, something very important. First there was a series of large explosions as the fuel containers were destroyed, then there was an explosion near the bottom of the ship, a burst of blue particles the immediately collapsed back into a black sphere that ate the ship and devoured the falling debris and the heat beam, which then turned off, before collapsing and burst open as an explosion of shrapnel and crushed parts. The other ships had escaped. By now they were in the upper atmosphere, nearly into space, burning their thrusters at full power, the four ships were now outside of its range. They had made it into space, where they came across the battle being waged. It was clear for them, they were loosing, as they came under fire. Their shields held the brunt of it all. They did not fire back, that was not their purpose, they instead continued at full speed, ramming speed, their shields smashing through the battle worn vessels and debris as they made a break for it past the planet's gravity well. By then one of the ships had been taken down, the shields were weakest from behind where the stream of plasma interfered with the structural integrity. It was destroyed much like the first ship was. At that point any suspicions about the purpose of these vessels was clear. That reaction was the result of destroying a fully charged jump drive, these were arks, escape vessels from the extermination they had brought. It didn't matter. The ships were outside of the planet's gravity well, and they activated their jump drives. Sparks arc across the vessels, towards the front as particles pooled there. From the perspective of the outsider they disappeared in flashes of light, flashes that generated phantom blurs that sped of at light speed. To the occupants, space collapsed in front of them into portals of complete blackness, before snapping back in another location of space, as the particles, the radiation gathered exploded like fire works. "Status report..." the Green and Yellow noble demanded. He sat on an elevated chair with the talisman hanging from his neck via a chain. "We've lost two ships for the convoy, sir..." said one of the mechs at the terminals around him, scrambling to make sense of readouts and data. "Navigation is now calculating current position." "We are getting com contact from the other two transports. They are now realigning to convoy formation." "Jump drives are charging, will return to max capacity within 15 mega cycles." "Shields holding at 75% and rising. All decks are reporting optimal." "I see..." the noble said "tell the other ships to prepare for the next jump. Until then I will be within my quarters." The noble stood up as the platform lowered to let him get off as he walked away. "Sir we have an incoming transmission." "What..?! Who...?" "Unknown, but it does not appear to be an organic signal of any kind we are familiar, with. They appear to be hailing us." "On screen." A holographic screen appeared showing a robot, entirely chrome, with a black visor, and emphasized lower jaw. His limbs were all cylinder shaped, with no hints of an alternate form. "Well good day fellow mechanoids, what brings you out to this corner of the galaxy." "Who are you...?" "Oh, just a merchant passing through, and friendly helper of all fellow mechanoids in this galaxy." "What do you want, alien?" "What do you need?" "I need for you to get of this line!" "You sure, because it looks to me that you lot need a new home." There was silence. "What do you want...?" "For starters, a look at the relic around your neck." Part 1 The world was red, a red planet is some forgotten corner of space. The soil, the mountains, they were red, and sometimes metal grey, heavy with iron and other metals. The seas were a sapphire blue, a glowing blue liquid that was perfect for fuel, and tree of gunmetal black bark, and crystal leaves with jade green fruit. None of these things were edible for 'organic', nothing carbon based. However, beneath the pink skies, the creatures that lived here were silicon based, insectoid creatures of metal, robotic bugs. These life-forms lived in peace for ages, until they came. The mechanoids came and leveled the forests, dug up the ore, and drained the lakes and rivers to build their new civilization. These new city, built from their ships, was constructed around the golden city, the only natural settlement on the planet, an empty settlement. The green and yellow flier stood in the room atop the tower. Like much of the golden city, the walls were marble white with gold trims and decorated by ruby crystals. The room was circular and in the middle was relic, upon a pillar, its core darkened. Other mechanoids were there, several without kibble, attaching wires to it, connecting it to equipment, among them some manner of laser turret. In came the other flier, the other nobles as he looked out towards the city. "Well Minos..." said one of them "Will it work this time?" Minos continued to look at the window. "Minos...?!" "I am not the one who ordered this..." he replied "And for that your standing has fallen! Without the Container of the Source Code, without the Mother Computer upon our homeworld, we cannot make-" "Enough..." Minos said "Not all here are authorized for that info. "Does it matter?" said another noble "Soon enough they will find out when we finish unloading minds from the libraries and we do not create more, new Morpheons." "Heh, most of the population no longer has the power to morph." "What is your point?" "We can synthesize the source code from others sources, study those still in storage." "That could take who know, how long!" "Maybe, but you lot remember what he said." "What does an alien know about our most sacred treasure?!" The other noble shouted. Years Ago Minos was surprised. On the alien ship, with his hands around the alien's neck, he found his will denied. The alien had turned off the talisman with a spark of emerald energy from his finger tip, and now held his hand, almost crushing it as his visor glowed with the same mad green energy "What are you...?" Minos asked "Guards...!" He looked back to see his retinue his bodyguards hoisted in the air. Green energy sparked all about their persons as their armor melted and reformed, bent and cracked and was renewed. Their faces were locked in eternal screams. "What are you?!" "Me...?" The alien dropped Minos hand, he was now on his knees. "I'm a friend, of your source. I'm just here to help your species do what it otherwise could not..." "What is that...?" "Survive." "Ha! We are the creations of the Great Architect, we-" "You are failures who never evolved, so stuck and dependent on your status quo. Organic, barely even a quarter as old your race, bested you, surpassed you, while you drank deep of the lies of your superiority. Your architect abandoned you long ago, your attempts to put his incarnation on trial did not help. Nor was involving the Alliance to bring down your enemies." "I don't understand..." "This is, this was your destiny, as your architect decided. You the 'loyal', the useless ineffectual nobles would flee to the stars, and be lost. Your ships, pathetic as they are, would not last long enough to find a new world suitable for you, any world not organic, is highly unlikely to be suitable for colonization and you have no eco-structuring technology. You will die out here, and in time the new generation of your home world would come and collect the talisman." "Our homeworld is dead..." "Evolution is born of death, death of the useless, the weak, the stupid, the ineffectual. Your people would survive on that blasted rock, and they would grow, free of your influence. The exiled will, are returning home, with new resources, with new technology. As Sol wills it, his children will finally evolve. You are the evolution dead ends he has thrown to the wayside. That is why 'it' has to be turned off." Minos looked at the relic, the now inactive relic "So long as you bear it, he will know you have not gone offline. However, you came in contact with me, now he expect all loose ends tied up, he expects you lot gone..." "Who are you...?" "You already saw my true face." The alien sat down as a chair of metal rose out of the ground, a chair composed of body parts that did not match, robotic body parts and more organic parts sculpted from metal. "Now I will lead you to a new home, a place where you will thrive and survive." "What do you want from us?" "Nothing...I do this because it amuses me..." "Because you will scorn the architect..." The alien mechanoid slapped his kneecap and began laughing "Oh, stars can you imagine his face when he finds out?! This is going to be priceless!" Minos growled at the thought of being a plaything. "Why should we listen to you?!" "Do you have another choice, sunny boi's boi?" Present "We are ready sir..." said one of the mechs. "Then activate it!" shouted one of the nobles a red and brown flier. One of the plain mechanoids took control of the turret and fired a red beam into the relic window. "So what is this...?" asked a blue and red flier. "They have synthesized the energy frequency that source code is transmitted by..." said Minos "A feat made easier by how similar it is to these red crystals." "Sir, we have a reaction..." said one of the scientists. The beam refracted within the relic, the beam bounced about, creating a net of red lasers, which eventually began to clash and connect as a red glow radiated from the relic, a glow that suddenly turned golden. It was then the ground quaked, not just in the tower but around the city, as far as anyone would be able to tell the entire shook as if something had just woken up. A voice came from the relic, thunderous and raging. Though the color of the light was now a soft gold instead of a crimson red, the feeling of wrath still filled the room as the voice spoke. "PARASITES!" Part 2 "Move mechs, move!" the commander shouted. He was the largest of the mechs in group, running, driving through the forest. The forest was black bark, and amethyst leaves, and they were being destroyed. The swarm from the air came down and fired beams, red lasers that cut down the trees and sliced apart the mechs. Their attempts to return fire did little to help as the drones, white marbles masks with mechanical tendrils as hair, as arms, they flew with unnatural resistance to gravity, and in the mass were difficult to hit. Those that survived eventually made their way into the bunker. These were the mechs who had an alternate mode. The 'genericons' as they were called, they were gunned down, in the chase to the bunker. "Blast these new weapons..." the commander said as he closed the hatch behind him, tightening it and placing a lock on it. He looked at his new weapon "Useless..." "They are more effective..." said the medic, the red and green bot, with a windows on his chest and wheels on his limbs. He was putting patches on the bots, which oozed a green substance the metal absorbed before morphing back into its proper shape. "The issue is accuracy." "What's the point of a gun that can't hit anything?! These 'blasters' are pointless, until they solve that problem." He looked around "How many left?" "Five, myself included." "Frag it. What were those nitwits thinking we could do?! Oh I know, a test to see how well these guns fared!" The sound of something large could be heard slamming into the door. Immediately the men sat up. "Go..." "Sir...?" "I said go Ambus! I'll hold them off!" "Sir, you will..." the others opened the opposite door, transformed into vehicle form and drove down the tunnel. "You will be terminated, they-" "They cannot be allowed access to the tunnel! Go..." Lines of hot metal began to form in door. The swarm was determined to get in. "I understand sir..." Ambus said with a said tone. He turned and opened the door, closing it behind him before transforming and taking off towards the other end of the tunnel. Past a certain point, the tunnel collapsed. The commander had flipped the switch destroying the tunnel.Category:One Shots Category:SolZen321